Lois Lane gets the YA treatment
According to the website DC Women Kicking Ass, Lois Lane will be starring in a YA novel by author Gwenda Bond and published by Capstone/Switch, to be released next May...
A disappearing breed
NPR recently posted a depressing article about the loss of librarians in Chicago's more than 600 public schools. As the districts are facing tough financial choices, more and more librarians are being reassigned from libraries to classrooms. Illinois does not require library instruction, so schools won't face any political or financial repercussions...
Visions, by Kelley Armstrong
The second book in Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series has recently been released, and it has the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor: I continue to find the heroine about as emotionally engaging as a roll of paper towels, but I am 100% invested in figuring out the whys and wherefores of the world Armstrong has created...
Gross, gross, gross
Margaret Talbot over at The New Yorker recently posted an article that perfectly sums up my feelings about the deeply creepifying new cover art for Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...
Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of ten of P.G. Wodehouse's early Jeeves and Wooster short stories. Nine are told from the point of view of Bertie Wooster, a wealthy, genial, mentally negligible young Englishman; the tenth is narrated by Jeeves, Bertie's unflappable and infinitely resourceful valet. There are no surprises in a Jeeves and Wooster short story...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
In honor of back-to-school week, I've chosen something soothing for this week's Book Giveaway: Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. It isn't my favorite Jeeves-and-Wooster collection, but it's pretty much ideal reading for anyone feeling overwhelmed by constant demands for calculators, kleenex, and signed permission slips...
The Lowly Worm returns
NPR informs me that there's a new Richard Scarry book coming out this month (despite Scarry's death in 1994). Scarry's son, Richard "Huck" Scarry Jr., claims to have found the partially-finished manuscript for Richard Scarry's Best Lowly Worm Book Ever! in his father's Swiss chalet, and decided to complete it himself...
Mollocking
I suspect this will be (unintentionally) hilarious: according to Variety, BBC One has announced the cast for its upcoming adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley’s Lover...
Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner
Inspired by Robert Lynn Asprin's long-running Thieves' World series, editor and author Terri Windling created the shared-world Borderland series in 1985. Borderland was followed by 1986's Bordertown and 1991's Life on the Border, and in 2011, twelve years after the publication of The Essential Bordertown, the series was revived by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, with Windling's blessing and participation...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black
This week we're giving away a copy of Welcome to Bordertown, a collection of short stories and poetry set in Terri Windling's "Bordertown" Universe and edited by Holly Black. The anthology includes some big names (Jane Yolen, Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, etc.), but I'm most excited about the short story by Annette Curtis Klause, whose book releases are way too few and far between...
A little look-see
NPR is offering readers a sneak peek at Jules Feiffer's upcoming graphic novel Kill My Mother, due out next Tuesday. The story appears to be a play on classic Hollywood film noir, re-imagined via Feiffer's inimitable art style...
Unfair
Illustrator and writer Leanne Shapton has designed a series of absolutely gorgeous patterned covers for Jane Austen's six novels. You can admire the books via the website Creative Review, but I have yet to see any signs of them on Random House's American website...
Girl to the Core, by Stacey Goldblatt
Stacey Goldblatt's Girl to the Core has the makings of a sweet, inspirational coming-of-age novel... cursed with a story-crippling flaw. Goldblatt's heroine is Molly O'Keefe, the only girl in a large, boisterous Irish-American family. Molly's a pushover, so when her boyfriend Trevor cheats on her she knows she'll need a distraction to keep herself from taking him back. Unexpectedly, she finds one in the Girl Corps, a Girl Scouts-like group...
Tactile reading
NPR recently posted a fascinating article about how 3-D printing might change books printed for blind readers—imagine a sculptural version of Goodnight Moon, with the mittens and kitten and everything standing out from the page...
Ghoulish tourism!
According to The Independent, the Yorkshire house that inspired Jane Eyre's Thornfield Hall is now open to the public. Charlotte Bronte visited the stately home of Norton Conyers in 1839, and heard the legend of "Mad Mary"...
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, by Kate Hattemer
Kate Hattemer's The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy is the kind of challenging, dialogue-driven teen drama I would have absolutely devoured as a kid. Sadly, I read it as an adult, which left me with a somewhat different reaction...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, by Kate Hattemer
This week we're giving away a copy of The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, by Kate Hattemer. The PR note I received with the novel claims that it's perfect for fans of Glee. I don't know about Ms. Hattemer (whose writing deserves better), but to paraphrase P.G. Wodehouse: if someone said such a thing about me, I would have risen and struck them on the mazzard, regardless of their age or sex...
Not feeling it.
Okay, I've been super busy this summer, but how did I miss this, and—bigger question—why is it happening? Bookriot informs me that Bloomsbury is releasing another new set of Harry Potter covers, this time featuring the artwork of Jonny Duddle...
Sadly...
The trailer is out for the upcoming Johnny Depp movie Mortdecai, based on the 1970s series of comic novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli. The movie looks absolutely terrible, but I had my hopes up about the books, seeing as A) they appear to be a parody of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, and B) the third is called Something Nasty in the Woodshed, which I assume...
Frostborn, by Lou Anders
While I doubt Lou Anders's Thrones & Bones: Frostborn will attract much of an adult audience, it's the kind of novel parents will love to read out loud to their kids. Anders divides his story between Karn, a human boy destined to inherit his father's farm (and the countless mind-numbing responsibilities that come with it), and Thianna, a half-giant, half-human girl who feels like she'll never fit in anywhere...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Frostborn, by Lou Anders
This week we're giving away Lou Anders's debut novel Frostborn, the first installment of his "Thrones and Bones" series. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it seems like a brisk, enjoyable read, carefully constructed to appeal to young readers of both genders. It definitely feels like a kid-specific story (unlike, say, Jonathan Stroud's Heroes of the Valley), but budding fantasy fans...
Have at it, Ms. Brownstein.
Time magazine says that Portlandia co-creator Carrie Brownstein has been hired to complete the late Nora Ephron's unfinished adaptation of ITV's 2008 TV miniseries Lost in Austen. Normally, I'd be concerned at the notion of Brownstein getting her hands on a Jane Austen-related property...
Imagine the prices (and contents) of their mini-bars.
It seems there have been complications with some anonymous businessman's plan to open a Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired "erotic hotel" in Vilafranca, Spain, according to THR. The local town council apparently feels the hotel is too close to a famous chapel. A (presumably G-rated) bar and restaurant have been open...
Revenant, by Kat Richardson
After nine books, Kat Richardson has finally brought her Greywalker series to a close, and she's ending the way she began: Revenant is carefully researched, densely plotted, and—it must be said—works much better on an intellectual level than an emotional one...
At least more people will read the book...?
Ugh. Variety informs me that Disney is planning to make a movie version of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved A Wrinkle in Time, to be adapted by Frozen director Jennifer Lee. I'm always happy to see a woman handling a major film project, but I have concerns about this one, you guys...
I hope that pirate one ends up in Times Square.
According to Refinery29, MAC's upcoming Fall 2014 makeup collection was inspired by the cover art featured on vintage romance novels, and will feature "products [ranging] from vivid lipsticks to killer nail polishes to electric-hued liners". I am SOLD, particularly if...
Starters, by Lissa Price
In the six years since The Hunger Games hit it big, it feels like I've read a million different versions of the “hellish future” story, featuring everything from zombies to World War III to natural disasters. I usually divide these books into two camps: the profoundly stupid violence-for-violence's-sake stories, and the novels that would have been published even if...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Starters, by Lissa Price
This week's Book Giveaway is Starters, by Lissa Price. It's tough for me to tell if I actually want to read this book, or if I'm just attracted to the icy vibe of the cover art. I'd like to think I'm not that easily manipulated by a shiny silver image, but we've been stuck in the throes of 90+ degree temperatures for DAYS here, and it's quite possible my brain has melted...
Happily ever after?
The trailer is out for Disney's upcoming version of Into the Woods. I legit don't understand this movie. If the rumors are true, they're taking out a lot of the depressing bits...